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Is sharia law the key to peace in the Afghanistan war?

Peace talks shunned by the Taliban as the Afghan government rejects preconditions. What are Taliban's sharia demands?

07 Mar 2016 17:14 GMT

British soldiers carry the body of a victim of an attack that happened near the Spanish Embassy in Kabul [AP]

Taliban is insisting on constitutional reforms such as mentioning the word "sharia" in the Afghan constitution. Currently, the constitution refers to "Islamic law" instead of "sharia" specifically. However, including the word "sharia" would present challenges for donor countries, whose constituencies may be averse to funding a government that is constitutionally required to implement sharia. On the other hand, if the word "sharia" is not incorporated into the constitution, the Taliban would see this as a major defeat.